Yesterday …

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10 years ago – Feb. 12, 1994

(As reported in the Bangor Daily News)

BANGOR – Wide-body jets double- and triple-parked at odd angles on the Bangor tarmac. Off to the side stood a British Airways Concorde.

Outside the terminal, chartered buses lined the curb, waiting to take stranded passengers to virtually every hotel and motel within 10 miles.

Inside, hundreds of people milled about, murmuring dozens of languages, moving carry-on luggage from one line to the other.

On the second floor, the crowd was livelier. A Danish sports club, 47 gymnasts and folk dancers in matching blue and purple sweatsuits, bounced around three rows of seats.

On top of it all, Connie Strout sat alone in the airport manager’s office. She had heard volumes of stories through the day, but there was one she could not understand, from a woman who spoke only Arabic.

“You don’t speak Arabic, do you?” she asked.

So the search went on, as weather transformed Bangor’s airport into an odd cross between a refugee camp for the well-heeled and an industrial-sized party.

Not our weather – Bangor had sunny skies and pleasant temperatures, hardly a whisper of a breeze. It was everybody else’s weather – snow in Boston and New York, ice farther down the coast – that brought the world to Bangor.

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ORRINGTON – The recreation department board will hold an open house and skating party at the town’s new 125-by-75-foot skating rink.

In addition to the new rink, there is also a recently completed warmup hut where skaters can go to put on their skates or just soak up the warmth. All materials and labor for the hut were donated.

Marcia Bean, member of the board, said the two people who have worked the most on the project are Recreation Director Melvin Coombs and volunteer Ronnie Stewart. All of the work at the rink, from flooding to plowing to construction, was done with volunteer labor, Bean said. Every two nights since the rink opened this winter, Coombs and Stewart and other volunteers have been flooding the rink to ensure its quality.

25 years ago – Feb. 12 1979

BANGOR – The streets were muddy in Washington, D.C. the day of President Abraham Lincoln’s second inauguration on March 4, 1865.

Not all brides in the 1800s wore white.

The people of the 1800s were considerably smaller than the men and women of today.

How do we know this? Clothes of the period reveal more about a people and their lifestyle and personal habits than some old staid history book. Historians consider styles significant indicators of a culture. After all, it was fashion designer Coco Chanel who said, “Fashion is architecture.”

Residents of the Bangor area got a fashion history lesson Thursday night – a Heritage Revue presented by the Bangor Historical Society and Penobscot Heritage. Proceeds from the dinner and show will be used for the conservation and restoration of memorabilia at the G.A.R. Memorial Home, the acquisition of new items and to set up displays and exhibits, said Tracy Ingeneri, who co-chaired the event with Harriette Cousins.

The 50 original costumes were provided by Frances Webb, a private collector, The Quipus and Shakespeare Club.

An exquisite 1900 wedding gown was worn by Margie Bragg of Bangor – appropriate since the gown was worn by her husband’s grandmother. It was made in Russia.

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BANGOR – Photographs by Orland Frati will be on view during February in the lobby of Depositors Trust Co. of Eastern Maine at Bangor.

Frati, a native of Bangor, has from the age of 13 held a camera in his hands, thus beginning many years of practice.

He received a degree in photography from Zeltsman School of Photography in New Jersey and is a member of the Professional Photographers Association of New England and of the Maine Professional Photographers.

50 years ago – Feb. 15, 1954

BANGOR – “Radio Signals from the Milky Way” is the subject on which Professor Bart Bok, associate director of the Harvard College Observatory, will speak to the members of the Harvard Club of Eastern Maine at its annual meeting at the Bangor House.

As Professor Bok has recently been in South Africa for a year and a half at the Boyden Station of the Harvard Observatory, he is acquainted with current political and racial developments in that troubled area. It is expected that during the question period that will follow his main address, he will discuss South African affairs, thus giving the club members a double-barreled program.

The astronomical lecture will be supplemented by slides of magnificent star photographs taken with the Baker-Schmidt telescope, the main instrument at the South African observatory.

Dr. Bok is the author of “The Distribution of the Stars in Space.” He and his wife have written “The Milky Way.”

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BANGOR – The annual Valentine supper dance of the Bangor Lions Club was held at the Lucerne Inn with more than 140 present.

The inn was beautifully decorated with red and white bunting and red and white carnations and red hearts. Red and white carnations also centered the tables. Favors for each woman attending were attractive vanity cases.

Music for dancing was furnished by Jack McDonough’s orchestra.

The Lions Club maharajah candidate, Frank Bourke, was given plenty of support and the Lions’ members plan to be right in there “slugging” for their candidate in the Junior League’s contest.

Frank Bourke arranged the evening’s program, which was emceed by Irving Hunter. Sandra Eslin entertained with dance routines, and instrumental and vocal selections were presented by Lt. Charles Powell and Sgt. Joseph Kirkland.

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OLD TOWN – Troop 21 Girl Scouts of Stillwater held a Valentine party at the home of Mrs. Dorothy Dempsey, assistant troop leader. Supper was served by the younger girls of the troop as a requirement for the hostess badge. Older girls in the troop, who have already earned this badge, were guests along with the leaders, Mrs. Dorothy Perkins and Mrs. Dempsey.

In addition to serving the supper, the girls also served two trays for Mrs. Charles Sutton and Miss Joyce Dempsey, who were unable to leave their rooms because of illness.

Serving the supper were Ginger Perkins, Carol Parlin, Carol Lee Gould, Janet Dickey, Gertrude Barden, Carol Wells, Velma Cook and Jennifer Greaves. Scout guests were Bonnie Stormann, Sandra Goodnow, Rae Dempsey, Sharon Deschaine and Ruth Dempsey.

100 years ago – Feb. 12, 1904

Henry Lord & Co. have completed their ice harvest, having filled their houses just above the narrows with first class ice, 14 to 18 inches thick. The capacity of these houses is about 20,000 tons. The American Ice Co. will finish harvesting on Friday, their cut amounting to about 40,000 tons. This will give Bangor about 60,000 tons for shipment, but how much of it will be shipped this year is a question that no one can answer. Two or three small cargoes are shipped every year to the West Indies and Bermuda, but ice is so plentiful in the Middle States that the domestic demand will be small this year.

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BUCKSPORT – The ice embargo continues in effect. The waterfront presents a wintery aspect, with ice everywhere. The docks are blockaded and there are extensive ice fields below and above. The back channel is frozen across, it being a foot or more in thickness. Smelt fishing has been practically abandoned. With no boats in or out, business is rather dull and the tradesmen have much leisure time. The Golden Rod is tied up at her dock and the Merryconeag is at Castine. The revenue cutter Seminole was in the harbor Wednesday, but did little good. It will require quite a long spell of mild weather to clear the river and reopen navigation.

Compiled by Ardeana Hamlin